Bio
Dr. Kaustubha Raghukumar is an oceanographer with a solid background in physical oceanography, ocean acoustics, and wave propagation physics, and has authored a number of peer-reviewed scientific papers in this area. He has 15 years of experience in modeling and at-sea measurements of hydrodynamic processes, such as ocean circulation, surface waves, internal waves, and underwater sound. He has participated in several international at-sea experiments that focused on the impact of oceanographic fluctuations on ocean acoustic propagation, and he continues to develop state-of-the-art acoustic monitoring techniques and technologies for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research. He is concurrently involved in modeling efforts to assimilate wave measurements into regional wave models and to examine the potential environmental effects of marine renewable energy devices.
Relevant Experience
Oceanography
Offshore Wind and Upwelling, California Energy Commission — Served as technical lead for an atmosphere-ocean modeling effort to understand the effect of energy extraction by floating offshore wind turbines on coastal upwelling.
Measurement Buoy Development, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy — Developed algorithms and performed field validation for a low-cost wave measurement buoy, the Spotter, developed by Spoondrift, Integral, and Sandia National Laboratories.
Matilija Dam Removal, California — Developed nearshore, phase-resolved wave models to accurately advect expected sediment loads following the removal of the Matilija Dam on the Ventura River and inform long-term shoreline change.
Vandenberg Unexploded Ordnance Study, Point Sal, Central California — Led a 3-month field effort to examine the long-term fate and transport of unexploded munitions under the influence of physical forcing, such as waves and currents.
R&D
Optical Imaging of Ensonified Ocean Waves, Office of Naval Research — Acted as technical lead to characterize surface gravity capillary waves induced by underwater acoustic fields with the goal of achieving rapid bathymetric mapping via in-air acoustic sources.
NoiseSpotter, U.S. Department of Energy — Lead the development of a vector sensor array with real-time telemetry to monitor the acoustic output of marine renewable energy devices, ultimately to help abate risk associated with sound from marine renewable energy installations.
Inner Shelf Direct Research Initiative, Office of Naval Research — Performed experimental design, field efforts, and data analysis to characterize transmission loss in the surf zone and to examine the effect of bubble plumes in attenuating sound.
Ecological Modeling
Ecosystem Model, MEGAMER Facility, University of California, Santa Cruz — Implemented a coupled ecosystem model (ROMS) of the California Current System and studied the biological impact of assimilating physical oceanographic data. Proposed a simple method to mitigate the deleterious effects of physical data assimilation while simultaneously preserving improvements following data assimilation.
Education & Credentials
Ph.D., Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 2009
M.S., Telecommunications, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, 2003
B.E., Electronics and Telecommunications, Goa University, Goa, India, 2000
Continuing Education
Research Associate, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, 2015
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, 2012
Professional Affiliations
Member of the Acoustical Society of America
Member of the American Geophysical Union
Insights & News
Using Ecological Risk Assessment to Assess EMF Impacts to Marine Life From Offshore Wind Infrastructure
Pilot Study of Integration of Wildlife Impact Analysis into Spatial Environmental Assessment Tool for Marine Hydrokinetic Energy
Performance of an Acoustic Sensing Array in an Energetic Tidal Channel
Performance Characteristics of the NoiseSpotter: An Acoustic Monitoring and Localization System
Wave Energy Converter Arrays: Optimizing Power Production While Minimizing Environmental Effects
Assessment of Wave Energy Resources and Factors Affecting Conversion
Wave Data Assimilation in Support of Wave Energy Converter Power Prediction: Yakutat, Alaska Case Study
Projected Cross-Shore Changes in Upwelling Induced by Offshore Wind Farm Development Along the California Coast
Offshore Wind and Upwelling on the U.S. West Coast
Effect of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines on Atmospheric Circulation in California
Advancing Renewable Energy: Integral Awarded Funding from DOE for Open-Water R&D at PacWave
Marine Renewables: Grace Chang, Kaustubha Raghukumar, and Frank Spada Coauthor Article in Frontiers in Marine Science
CalWave, San Diego
National Science Foundation
Office of Naval Research—Vandenberg Space Force Base and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Acoustics Characterizing Noise Associated with Marine Energy